The document U.S. 2008/0201350 (Context-Based Information Retrieval), published on Aug. 21, 2008, proposes a system and method for searching contextual information. The term “context” in accordance with the teachings of said document U.S. 2008/0201350 does not follow the same definition of the patent described here because it represents a combination of meta-data (or tokens) with other existing data. The object of said system is the medical field, particularly through diagnostics using images. In this field, the devices responsible for obtaining the images produce a huge amount of data that includes the function performed and the day on which the action occurred, errors, important and/or critical parameters, numerical results from sensors or a combination thereof. The document U.S. 2008/0201350 therefore offers an advanced search technique upon these data to optimize and simplify the detection of failures in maintenance of machines, using the “context” of the meta-data.
The document U.S. 2004/0172460 (Context Filter), published on Sep. 2, 2004, also proposes the assignment of meta-data to pre-existing data. In particular, the document U.S. 2004/0172460 describes methods for quickly searching to find the data through the metadata. The document U.S. 2004/0172460, however, after the detection of context, specifies only a “pointer” to the context in a database. In that document U.S. 2004/0172460, the end result includes a list of concepts common to the context identified.
The document U.S. 2008/0005679 (Context Specific User Interface), published on Jan. 3, 2008, proposes techniques that modify the operation of a device based on the context in which it is inserted. Examples of contextual attributes include the physical location of the device, an accessory connected to the device, some attribute related to connecting to a data network, any attribute linked to the behavior identified of use of the user, the execution state of other applications and/or the state of the user. Based on these contextual attributes, the software undergoes changes in order to adapt to the current context, with all configuration done through the contextual attributes of a remote computer, not forcing the user to make changes on the device itself.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 7,792,795, published on Sep. 7, 2010, presents a centralizing and pooling of resources, serving as a facilitator of access to data from other applications. Additionally, the term context in U.S. Pat. No. 7,792,795 refers only to data such as name, address, attributes of a person, a user's preferences, device data (e.g. GPS location), and so on. However, there is no reference to the control of hardware components.